BECKLEY – The Beckley police and fire pension boards have sued the state Municipal Pensions Oversight Board, saying it’s asking them to change systems that have worked for years.
The boards filed the joint complaint June 7 in Raleigh Circuit Court against the MPOB and Chairman Steve Needo. Together, they seek a preliminary injunction to prohibit the MPOB from forcing the pension boards to count years of service in full years instead of fractional years and to prohibit the MPOB from forcing the funds to recalculate pension for their retirees and surviving spouses.
“The Beckley Fire Pension Fund and the Beckley Police Pension Fund are using the simplest fairest method of calculating pension benefits possible: every day of service is credited and every day of service results in a contribution to the fund by the employee,” attorney Teresa Toriseva told The West Virginia Record. “Any other method other than fractional test calculations cheats the police and firefighter retirees and their widows.
Toriseva
"Both funds have seen substantial and steady growth with fire adding $13.7 million and police adding $20.9 million since 1993. The fund has been managed and protected and it thrives because of the wise decisions of its police and firefighter fiduciaries.
“Government oversight here is turning into overreach on a hyper technical non-issue.”
The MPOB was created by the state Legislature to monitor and improve the performance of municipal police and fire pension and relief funds. But, the Beckley pension boards say the current method “has been the practice for decades where the fund has thrived and grown.”
According to the complaint, MPOB CFO Michelle Painter conducted a compliance review of Beckley’s fire and police pension boards during fiscal year 2020. On January 13, 2021, MPOB Executive Director Blair M. Taylor mailed letter to both boards with the results of the review.
The letters addressed what the MPOB called non-compliance. These letters addressed what the MPOB deemed as non-compliance and suggested the boards not calculate pension benefits as required. Also, the MPOB took issue with the boards using fractional years to calculate benefits.
The MPOB took issue with the pension boards using fractional years to calculate benefits, but the pension boards say state code does not mention fractional years or prohibit their use.
Now, the Beckley fire and police pension boards give new employees credit for each day worked, as they utilize fractional years. The MPOB wants the boards to change the way they account for fractional years for current employees and retroactively adjust pensions being paid.
“The ‘solution’ recommended by the MPOB would steal time from every employee that does not retire or end their employment on their hire date,” the complaint states. “The pension boards have performed exceedingly well in protecting the interests of its pensioners and the public.
“Neither pension funds have lost money. In fact, both pension funds have grown considerably since 1993.”
The pension boards ask the court to enjoin the MPOB from forcing the repayment of earned pension benefits by pensioners and surviving spouses and to enjoin the MPOB from forcing the boards to change the way they calculate years of service.
They also want the court to declare that as paid members of the Beckley Police and Fire Departments, these police officers and firefighters are entitled to receive credit for each day worked through the utilization of fractional years toward pension credits and to declare police and fire members possess a property interest in the wages contributed to their respective pensions and that wages contributed cannot be reclaimed regardless if fractional years were used to calculate pension benefits.
The Beckley boards are being represented by Toriseva, Joshua Miller and Michael Kuhn of Toriseva Law in Wheeling. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Andrew Dimlich.
Raleigh Circuit Court case number 22-C-185
